Civil Rights icon John Lewis headed to Harvard, sees work ahead to guarantee rights
Few political figures can say truthfully that they dedicated their lives to battling injustice and making sure all Americans are treated equally and with dignity. But U.S. Rep. John Lewis is one. Lewis, one of the “big six” leaders of the Civil Rights era, was still a student in Nashville when he embarked on the Freedom Rides to battle desegregation in 1961. He became chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and led the group’s efforts to desegregate lunch counters in the South. He also was one of the organizers and speakers at the landmark March on Washington that year. In 1965, he co-led the march across the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma, Ala., where he and other participants were attacked by police in a Civil Rights watershed known as “Bloody Sunday.” Lewis sustained a fractured skull. In 1986, he was elected to represent Georgia’s 5th Congressional District in Washington,...